I remember the Randi episode of Happy Days. It was in fact the first time I had ever heard of him. Him hanging upsidedown outside a window in a strait jacket is usually one of the first images that pops into my mind when I think about him.

I never could figure out why he was such a big deal. He was so cleaned up and watered-down that I’m amazed he had any following at all. He never had enough grease in his hair. Early in the series he wore A BABY-BLUE WINDBREAKER instead leather jacket, and when he finally DID get a leather jacket, it wasn’t a motorcycle jacket but a bomber jacket.

How I gleaned all this info I will never know, because I am pretty sure I never watched an entire episode of this show.

TRIVIA NOTE — Check me out on this, but I’m pretty sure the pilot for Happy Days ran as a segment on LOVE AMERICAN STYLE.

Selina, when it did come to the UK it was shown in the London area first. I lived in Cheshire & used to buy the New Musical Express and Melody Maker. They had these ads on the back pages for T-shirt designs (my favourite was the 2 vultures sitting on a tree branch where one says to the other “Patience my ass, I’m gonna kill something!”) one of which was for The Fonz. I used to wonder who he was & asked others but they didn’t know either.

It seemed like a long time after that before Happy Days appeared in the Granada region & the mystery was resolved. Anyway, at least Granada had The Beatles before anywhere else

Although I’ll use Wikipedia to get some clue about WTH is this nonsense about, I have to say: American sometimes just are too fond of their own navel… :/

(Anyway, if the aim was to definitively puzzle and irritate foreigners with obscure references to some American TV-pop culture idiocy, this post has been a success… now I’ll have to waste time finding out what the hell is this nonsense about else my curiosity gland will explode, but SURE it won’t be worth it… >:( )

“Although Iâ€™ll use Wikipedia to get some clue about WTH is this nonsense about, I have to say: American sometimes just are too fond of their own navelâ€¦ :/

(Anyway, if the aim was to definitively puzzle and irritate foreigners with obscure references to some American TV-pop culture idiocy, this post has been a successâ€¦ now Iâ€™ll have to waste time finding out what the hell is this nonsense about else my curiosity gland will explode, but SURE it wonâ€™t be worth itâ€¦ >:( )”

Metaphor birthed 30 years ago the day you posted it. Hardly metaphotr methinks dates back – along with simile (spelling?) to ye olde English times or even before that all the way back to the cavemans’ early gruntings – a picture on teh wall pof amammoth is arguably ametaphotr for theactual animal … a-n-y-w-a-y …

What you meant (I think) was the birth of a specific metaphor ie “jumping the shark’.

Well, I was never a big Happy Day’s fan before or after I heard of it. But I grok the idea anyway. There are a whole lot of TV shows that I think “jumped the shark” – a sizeable number in their pilot episode! 😉

I could be controversial and suggest that the way the ‘Star Trek’ franchise jumped the Shark with the series after ‘The Next Gen’ is a classic example tho’ ..

Oh and for a new flag I suggest Americans replace the old ‘Stars & stripes’ with a giant bloody Swashtika combined with a Crucifux and the Star of David along with these words in blood-red :

“In Dubya Bush’s warped interpretation of God we trust”

with perhaps a row of barrels of oil or skulls symbolising the various states …

It’d certainly be an apt if sad and no doubt enragingly accurate reflection to most of the world about how you’ve changed and what sort of a nation you’ve sadly become.

BTW. Despite my strong anti-Bush feelings & political outlook, I’m actually very much pro-USA – its smarter, better, more inspirational side exemplified by Martin Luther King & Isaac Asimov – & Phil Plait & the good folks here that is; NOT its fundamentalist, hypocritically prudish*, arrogant, ignorant neo-con one exemplified by George the Second.

I discern a battle within America right now and I wish I could say the side of good and hope for the future was winning, the sideof science and democracy and civil liberties NOT the side of the Religious Wrong & Neo-Conservative fascists out for “full spectrum dominace” over a planet they donm’t understand and care only about getting themselves rich from regardless of the suffering.

If you’re going to give away you’re guns and SUV’s, well, the rest of the planet would be very grateful ..

* Ie the sort of thing where Janet Jackson’s 1/4 sec. part-breast flap has folks foaming at the mouth yet a President lying his country into the war crime of invading Iraq and thus murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people gathers nowhere near even a tenth that same outrage ..

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Hmmn .. now all that that is going to be controversial – albeit very true.

For those who don’t understand why Fonzie was considered cool, you actually understand the concept perfectly. Fonzie started out on Happy Days as mysteriously cool, and then over the course of the show, he was revealed as more and more human and just like everyone else. I always thought that that was the point.

StevoR said:
> Metaphor birthed 30 years ago the day you posted it. Hardly metaphotr methinks dates back – along with simile (spelling?) to ye olde English times or even before that all the way back to the cavemansâ€™ early gruntings – a picture on teh wall pof amammoth is arguably ametaphotr for theactual animal â€¦ a-n-y-w-a-y â€¦

>What you meant (I think) was the birth of a specific metaphor ie â€œjumping the sharkâ€™.

Um, yes. What Phil said was “the birth of a metaphor” (emphasis added), not “the birth of metaphor”. See the difference? English, you might try it some time. You might also try typing. (“metophotr”, “teh wall pof amammoth”, etc).

I mean, if you’re going to be hypercritical, at least don’t screw up yourself.